Sunday, August 8, 2010

Third

This is the final old blog, written on July 31st. After today, I will give real-week updates on my adventures in in Sweden!

This is my second day with the Wetterlundh family. So far, it is alright. I talked with Karin, tried to read some svenska, and made a major discovery. Their newspaper contains comics. By a quirk of fate, Zits and Calvin and Hobbes are here! They are in svenska, naturally, but they are here! Calvin and Hobbes, however, is called Kalle och Hobbe. Same thing. The comic featured Calvin taunting a plant about how he could let the plant die by not giving it water. Then in the last panel, the rain fell. Some things have remained the same!
Like music. Right now, I am listening to a band called Kent. No joke. It is alternative music and the singers sing Swedish, but it sounds alright. Now I just need to become good enough to translate. But if I can read a newspaper with a lot of help, and still be capable of recognizing and remembering some of the words (example: svart meaning black) then understanding it shouldn’t be too bad. Eventually. One day.
I met the family, today. The entire family. Well, it was almost the entire family. After a small breakfast, Maja and I went down the hill to have lunch with one half of the family. I tried to do a head count. I’m fairly sure that there was at least 10. I think. (tror). All of the girls are blonde or strawberry blonde, and very tiny. But they were all very nice
We ate pancakes. Swedish pancakes are thin and large. The cooked pancake, owing to its thinness, is capable of being rolled. Pancakes here are served with jam, white sugar, and ice-cream.
After lunch, I joined Maja and her cousins on the beach. Now, don’t assume. This was not a typical beach. It was very small and narrow. With Maja’s female cousins, we played Cheat. Cheat is probably the best way to learn numbers in Swedish. One of the girls picked up that I was trying to say all my plays in Swedish and tried to help me out with pronunciation, but the other’s kept on speaking in only English. But my favourite part was when they spoke in Swedish. Whenever they did that, I was allowed to sit back and enjoy a musical language not have to say anything.
I didn’t go swimming. The water was cold.
There were these two small children. By far, they were my favourite. They couldn’t speak a word of English which, in a very weird way, was refreshing. Everyone above the age of 14 is capable of speaking English here. Conversely, this makes them speak to me mostly in English. Right now, I don’t have the heart to ask them to stop. Every so often, they would stop speaking English and talk for a while in Swedish. Sometimes to ask each other for a translation of a certain word, other times just to talk. I prefer it almost when they talk to each other in Swedish. This forces me to learn it.
In the evening, I met more of the family. This time, it was only five people who came instead of ten. They were nice, amiable people.
After supper, they all left. But, Hanna, Marcus, Sara, and one more girl, whose name I can’t remember arrived. We watched “P.S: I Love You”. It was about a recently widowed woman who was being sent letters written by her deceased husband just before he died. The movie is now on the list of movies to buy.
I sat on a chair that was covered by an exact same blanket that we have at home. It’s that blue Ikea blanket with the tassels at each end.
A random note: Ikea is not supposed to be pronounced, “I-kea,” but really, “E-kea.” Weird.

About Me

Right now, in a land far, far away, there was this Canadian girl in Sweden. I'm currently on an exchange, (Thank you, Rotary International Youth Exchange!!) and I want to tell everyone what it is like to be in a country that is familiar, yet vastly different!